Jesse Bethel High School broke ground Wednesday on a $28.3 million sports complex that will bring new synthetic turf, an all-weather track and a football field named after former NFL star C.J. Anderson to the long-neglected Vallejo campus. The project will renovate the school's football, softball and baseball fields, replacing conditions that have left the site with years of poor upkeep and one of the last area tracks that still wasn't all-weather.
According to the Vallejo Times Herald, construction began this summer and is expected to wrap up by fall 2027. The broader construction initiative is priced at $23.8 million, part of the $28.3 million total project cost, and is being funded through a combination of Measure S bond dollars and Community Facilities District No. 2, or CFD No. 2, according to the paper's report. Measure S money for the work traces back to summer 2020, while Vallejo voters approved the $194 million general obligation bond measure in November 2018.
A Field Named for a Hometown Super Bowl Hero
The new football field carries the name of C.J. Anderson, a 2009 Jesse Bethel graduate and former NFL star, according to the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame. Anderson, now the head football coach at Benicia High School, said the athletic facility reflects years of work by community contributors, per the Times Herald's report. Anderson said he would see good players on Friday, and Gary Lee, Anderson's former coach, said he told Anderson about the construction back in July.
Lee said the project will let students practice without travel concerns, the outlet reported. That travel has long been a headache for Bethel athletes: students currently have to head to Corbus Field on the Vallejo High School campus just to practice, since Bethel's own fields have been in such rough shape.
Drainage Fixes and a Flooding Baseball Field
General contractor Alten Construction is tackling significant site work beneath the new fields, including an 18-inch live treatment process meant to solidify the substrate, which the company aims to complete by October. Crews are also fixing longstanding field drainage problems and stabilizing the lower level of the site, per the Times Herald. Nearby creek flooding has caused persistent problems near the baseball field, so much so that the team installed a temporary plastic fence roughly 230 feet from home plate as a stopgap, and a marsh area was extended approximately 80 feet between a new retaining wall and the wall beyond it as part of the fix.
When finished, the complex will include new bleachers, a new scoreboard, a new restroom facility and electricity infrastructure for the fields. The stadium lights that would let Bethel host night games, however, aren't included in the current construction contract. Alten Construction is installing the underlying infrastructure for future lights, but actually turning them on will require another funding measure and approval from neighborhood residents.
District Leaders Frame Project as Overdue
Superintendent Rubén Aurelio said the groundbreaking symbolizes work that took too long to begin, and told the paper the improvements will transform the school and the surrounding campus area. Board President Glenn Amboy said the project represents progress, opportunity and a long-term commitment to students. The moment carries extra weight given VCUSD's history: the district only regained full local governance in June 2025, according to KQED, ending 21 years of state receivership that began in 2004 amid financial distress and a $60 million state emergency loan.
Bethel Principal Rasheena Bell Fesseha, who graduated from the school in 2002 and first attended in 1998, said the project will close the opportunity gap for students and give them a place to set goals and support one another. Superintendent Rubén Aurelio said the project would teach discipline, teamwork and perseverance along the way. Fesseha said the long-term goal is to host games on Bethel's own field, though she was unsure whether that would happen as soon as 2027. She said flag football games could probably be held at the new field even before lights and full game-day capacity arrive, and she plans to explore solar lights as an interim solution in the meantime.
Games Still Headed to Corbus Field for Now
The new synthetic fields and track will add athletic facilities at Bethel. Corbus Field is at Vallejo High School and is a shared district facility that hosted the 50th Annual VCUSD Special Olympics in May 2026, according to Vallejo City Unified School District.
Alten Construction is working on the sports complex. Alten Construction's work elsewhere includes a $20 million modernization project at VCUSD's Hogan Middle School involving new basketball courts, lockers, HVAC systems and campus infrastructure. This spring, a Measure S-funded renovation of Hogan Middle School's auditorium was linked to a $1.16 million figure, part of ongoing efforts to manage budget pressures amid declining enrollment.
The current project will renovate the campus's athletic facilities and is funded in part by CFD No. 2, a Mello-Roos special tax district levied on property owners in Vallejo's northeast quadrant, primarily the Hiddenbrooke and Northgate developments, to pay for school facilities in that part of the city. California's Proposition 2 is a $10 billion school-facilities bond and grant measure.
